Viewers of Sir David Attenborough’s new wildlife series Mammals were shocked by a brutal scene in which a predator eats a rabbit’s head as they joked ‘Happy Easter kids!’.
The first program was recorded completely in the dark and broadcast on the BBC on Easter Sunday at 7pm.
Naturalists spent five years analyzing how mammals coped with changing habitats, ahead of the new series of six documentaries.
Social media users took to ‘X’, formerly known as Twitter, to praise the new episode, which they said was a ‘treat’ to watch on Sunday evenings.
But some were shocked to see images of a rabbit being mauled by a coyote on Easter Sunday.
Pictured: The clip from tonight’s episode of Sir David Attenborough’s Mammals
In the photo: the coyote wanders the streets looking for something to eat
One person said: ‘And now he’s eating the head of a rabbit. Happy Easter people!’
Another wrote: ‘Come on David, I’m still eating my tea.’
“Wily Coyote put the rabbit’s foot in his pocket for good luck,” another joked.
In the clip you can hear David Attenborough say: The coyotes don’t like litter, they are skilled hunters, before you see the coyote chewing on the rabbit.
The new series tells the story of mammals (including humans) that begins 200 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs.
During a preview of the show, executive producer Roger Webb said in an interview that one of his favorite moments in the series is one tainted by decades of human conflict.
Webb refers to the fearlessness that wolves demonstrate in order to occupy the Golan Heights, which is considered a Syrian territory under Israeli occupation – except by Israel and the United States.
Despite being one of the most notoriously contested areas in the world for over 70 years, this does not stop wolves from being found in the area.
Speaking about filming in the area, Roger said: ‘The story of the wolf who adapted to life in minefields on the Golan Heights is a good story.
“What I love about that is the wolf’s persistence in moving to an area that we can no longer go to because, unfortunately, we’ve screwed up in a very tragic way.
‘Behind that story lies an incredible person, Itamar Yairi. He’s a real hero. It’s people like Itamar who have opened the door for us to these incredible stories and then allowed us to document them and put them on screen.”
He refers to the work of a nature photographer, who closely observed the Golan wolves for almost two years and managed to capture a number of special images along the way.